Adverse Childhood Experiences Certification

This course introduces the concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). You will learn how issues such as child abuse, neglect, divorce or substance abuse by parents, and adverse economic circumstances, can affect the physical and emotional health of children and teenagers well into adulthood, causing anxiety, mental health issues, impaired brain development and life-threatening diseases.

You will learn about the damaging effects of extreme stress reactions and the problems caused by poor attachment to parental figures and caregivers, the types of planning, strategies and interventions used at school and at home to help buffer and protect children and teenagers living in these situations, and the possible societal interventions for breaking the generational cycle of abuse.

What you will learn

• The ten major ACEs, and how economic disadvantage can also be seen as an ACE
• What toxic stress and stress reactions are
• The theories behind attachment and the risks to a child or teenager who experiences insecure attachment
• Strategies to help children with ACEs cope
• Strategies parents and caregivers can use to help children verbalise and grieve their experiences safely
• The societal responsibility and strategies required to break the cycle of abuse

Course content

This course has 5 modules and around 3.75 hours of learning, each including a quiz: What are ACEs?; Childhood Trauma; Toxic Stress and Attachment Theory; Helping Traumatised Children to Cope; and Identifying the Problem and Breaking the Cycle.

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